Georgia
Kirby Smart rips CFP committee after Georgia's 31-17 thrashing of Tennessee: 'I don’t know what they’re looking for'
ATHENS, Ga. — Kirby Smart may enjoy the College Football Playoff, but it’s safe to say he isn’t a fan of the College Football Playoff committee. On two separate occasions after Saturday’s crucial 31-17 victory over Tennessee, Smart took a moment to castigate the committee’s decisionmaking and question its football acumen.
“I don’t know what they’re looking for. I really don’t,” said Smart, whose team was ranked 12th but effectively locked out of the playoffs after last week’s loss to Ole Miss. “I wish they could really define the criteria. I wish they could do the eyeball test where they come down here and look at the people we’re playing against and look at them.You can’t see that stuff on a TV.”
What the committee would have seen had they been at Sanford Stadium—and what 93,033 in the stands saw live—was a Georgia team that’s capable of healing itself on the fly, both in the middle of the season and in the middle of a game. If Wolverine wasn’t already aligned with another university, the Dawgs could claim him as an avatar.
“They’re not in that [in-game] environment,” Smart said in a press conference beneath the bleachers, as delirious Georgia fans celebrated outside. “They’re not at Ole Miss in that environment, playing against that defense, which is top five in the country … They don’t know that, they don’t understand that.”
“Their offense hasn’t been consistent, the committee discussed that, they’ve struggled with some turnovers,” CFP chairman Warde Manuel said last Tuesday in announcing the latest rankings. “Defense has been solid, although in the loss to Ole Miss, we felt that (inconsistent offense) plays a factor … with the offense struggling, their defense was on the field quite a bit.”
You can’t throw out red meat like that and expect Smart not to snap at it. “They’ll probably look at this week and say we just played against one of the best defenses in the country, and we put up 453 (yards of offense), and could have been more,” he said. “It’s just the tale of each week, and we’re trying to be the cumulative, whole, good quality team, and not be on this emotional rollercoaster that’s controlled by people in a room somewhere that may not understand football like we do as coaches.”
Whew. Got all that? Thing is, Smart has every reason to be sore—and every reason to believe that his team is absolutely one of the best in the country, regardless of what arbitrary week-to-week rankings say. Georgia smothered Tennessee, holding the Vols scoreless in the second half and containing the Vols in a way no other team has managed this year.
Assuming no further hiccups, two losses and their current trajectories ought to be enough for both Georgia and Tennessee to make the playoffs. Both teams are 8-2 overall, but the Bulldogs are finished with SEC play at 6-2, while UT falls to 5-2 in league with a game at Vanderbilt still to come.
The Georgia-Tennessee rivalry may not have the juice of, say, Georgia-Auburn or Tennessee-Alabama, but it’s fast becoming a matchup of heavyweights. Four of the last five games have featured both teams ranked in the top 20, and Saturday night was, in many ways, a playoff play-in. At stake: a potential SEC championship berth for Tennessee, a likely playoff berth for Georgia.
Early on, Georgia punter Brett Thorson — the only Bulldog who came out of the gate strong — unintentionally set the early mood for Georgia in the first half. The Dawgs had gone three-and-out on their opening series, Thorson punted the ball away, and a Tennessee player knocked him to the ground. Flags flew, and Thorson lay on his back, gloating, expecting a roughing-the-punter call that would give Georgia a fresh set of downs.
It wasn’t to be. The officials picked up the flags, ruling that the Tennessee player had been blocked into Thorson. And Tennessee would proceed to score a touchdown on its ensuing drive to take a 7-0 lead.
It was a pretty stark message: If Georgia wanted a victory over an initially feisty Vols team Saturday night, the Dawgs would have to earn it.
The status of each team’s starting quarterback dominated pregame talk. Would Nico Iamaleava be available after undergoing a reported concussion protocol? Would Carson Beck continue his slide from his Heisman Trophy candidacy into interception-slinging irrelevance?
The first half answered both questions fairly effectively. Iamaleava got the start and led the Vols on touchdown drives of 78 and 75 yards, with a field goal in between. Beck, meanwhile, came out firing, throwing 29 first-half passes. Sure, many of those passes flew high or wide, but that’s better than into enemy hands, right? Beck connected with tight end Oscar Delp — also known as Brock Bowers 2.0 — for two touchdowns and drove the Dawgs to a late first-half field goal.
Halfway home, the game was tied at 17, with no clear edge for either side.
Georgia struck first in the second half, with a very un-Carson Beck-like drive from Beck consuming 7:22 and covering 87 yards over 12 plays. Beck, who’s spent the last few weeks as the target of Georgia fans’ rage, appeared as composed and centered as he has all season on the drive, finding open men, eluding the Tennessee rush and guiding Georgia with a confidence he hadn’t shown in weeks. He took the ball into the end zone himself on the drive’s final play, scooting 10 yards to put Georgia ahead 24-17.
Tennessee’s offense, so reliable in the first half, sputtered and staggered in the second, punting on three consecutive possessions. Following a 2-yard touchdown run by Nate Frazier that gave the Bulldogs a 31-17 lead, Tennessee took over with 2:26 remaining in regulation but turned it over on downs with an Iamaleava fumble. The Vols’ offense was held lifeless for the final 30 minutes.
The final line on Beck: 347 yards on 25-of-40 attempts, with two touchdowns, plus 32 yards and a touchdown on the ground. After a week in which the outside world ripped Beck and the Georgia offense, it was some sweet redemption.
“Those guys, they took a lot of criticism from people, and really unwarranted, in my opinion,” Smart said.”’Cause it’s funny, when you talk to people that actually know football, they know how hard it is to play in that [SEC] environment.”
It’s a theme Smart has struck repeatedly this year: The SEC is a crucible. Every week is a battle. Losses here aren’t the same as losses elsewhere. It’s PR spin, sure, but it’s also got the ring of truth, especially when you see what a team like Georgia is capable of doing when everything is humming.
Georgia will rise in the next set of CFP rankings, but probably not high enough for Smart’s liking. Unless and until the committee comes and watches him play in person, he’s going to hold onto that grudge.
“I respect their decision. respect their opinion. But, I mean, it’s different in our league,” Smart said, and then added one little twist. “So … go Dawgs.”
And with that, he was gone, statement made.
ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) — One metro Atlanta organization is weighing both the potential benefits and risks following President Donald Trump’s signing of an executive order Thursday aimed at expediting the reclassification of marijuana.
Atlanta News First spoke with Michael Mumper, executive director of Georgians for Responsible Marijuana Policy. He emphasizes this action is about research – not legalization – and said the science surrounding marijuana use remains unsettled.
“There are a lot of results, research that says that it has benefits and a lot that says it has harms,” Mumper said. “We need to dive into those much more before we rapidly expand marijuana access. This research will allow us to dig deeper into the real benefits and harms of marijuana.”
He adds that this action will also reduce paperwork for researchers and change how the drug is regulated by both the FDA and the DEA.
This order makes marijuana a schedule three classification under controlled substances, putting it in the same category as some steroids. Drugs that can be used in different situations based on the type and severity of pain.
Mumper shares his deep concern after this decision on Capitol Hill.
“Most important message to the public is that it normalizes marijuana as a product for consideration,” Mumper said. “For us, that’s a bit premature and dangerous because youth are still being harmed at alarming rates.”
The move does not change Georgia law and does not fully legalize the use of cannabis.
In Georgia, multiple efforts to legalize or decriminalize marijuana at the state level have failed. Under current state law, patients may access low-THC oil strictly for medical use if they have one of the qualifying medical conditions approved for treatment.
“Will be pressure on states to expand medical marijuana programs,” Mumper said. “But our argument has always been we have to stick to the science.”
President Trump has also directed his administration to work with Congress to “ensure seniors can access CBD products they have found beneficial for pain.”
Copyright 2025 WANF. All rights reserved.
THE FLATS – Two generous, anonymous families have each given $10 million gifts to support Georgia Tech athletics’ Full Steam Ahead initiative and the Yellow Jackets’ football program, Tech vice president and director of athletics Ryan Alpert has announced.
“We’re incredibly grateful to these two generous families for their investments in Georgia Tech athletics and a championship-level football program,” Alpert said. “Led by these families, their relentless investments in our mission and their belief in our upward trajectory, support of Georgia Tech athletics and Tech football are at unprecedented levels.”
With these transformative gifts, Georgia Tech athletics is well on to set a new fundraising record in the 2026 fiscal year, as donor participation is up 21% in just six months since the fiscal year began on July 1.
Additionally, in just 14 months since the public launch of Full Steam Ahead in October 2024, Tech athletics has received nearly $90 million in new commitments to the initiative. In total, nearly $400 million has been raised towards Full Steam Ahead’s $500 million goal, which is a part of the Institute-wide Transforming Tomorrow campaign.
Georgia Tech continues to display its commitment to fielding nationally prominent, championship-level athletics programs. Notably, Tech athletics has committed to making more than $150 million in investments to its football program over the next several years, which includes the opening of the Fanning Student-Athlete Performance Center in the spring (a state-of-the-art facility that will benefit Georgia Tech’s full body of 300-plus student-athletes), a renovation of Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field that will be completed prior to the 2027 season, a continued pledge to provide maximum revenue sharing to student-athletes and significant new resources devoted to expand and enhance staff.
To fulfill these commitments, enhanced engagement and support from the Georgia Tech community is vital.
“We still have progress to make to achieve our goal of consistently competing for championships at the highest levels of intercollegiate athletics,” Alpert continued. “Never in the history of college athletics has success been so closely tied to resources, and now is the time to seize the opportunity to take advantage of the great momentum and energy that we’re experiencing on The Flats.
“Every member of the White and Gold community can play a part. We urge fans to get in the game. Whether it be through gifts to the A-T Fund, purchasing tickets and merchandise, corporate sponsorships – every manner of support is vital to the success of Tech athletics.”
For more information and to make a year-end gift to the A-T Fund, visit atfund.org.
Full Steam Ahead
Full Steam Ahead is a $500 million fundraising initiative to achieve Georgia Tech athletics’ goal of competing for championships at the highest level in the next era of intercollegiate athletics. The initiative will fund transformative projects for Tech athletics, including renovations of Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field (the historic home of Georgia Tech football), the Zelnak Basketball Center (the practice and training facility for Tech basketball) and O’Keefe Gymnasium (the venerable home of Yellow Jackets volleyball), as well as additional projects and initiatives to further advance Georgia Tech athletics through program wide-operational support. All members of the Georgia Tech community are invited to visit atfund.org/FullSteamAhead for full details and renderings of the renovation projects, as well as to learn about opportunities to contribute online.
Fourth Quarter
Less than two weeks remain for the Georgia Tech community to take advantage of the A-T Fund’s year-end Fourth Quarter Initiative, which gives supporters the opportunity to receive four A-T Fund priority points for every $100 donated to the Athletic Scholarship Fund through Dec. 31. The Athletic Scholarship Fund provides direct support for student-athletic scholarships and is one of the A-T Fund’s highest annual priorities, as it helps bridge the gap between endowment returns and scholarship costs.
Fourth Quarter gifts to the Athletic Scholarship Fund will provide donors with four A-T Fund priority points per $100 donated, which is double the two points normally allotted per $100 given. A-T Fund priority points are used to allocate benefits such as seat locations and parking for Georgia Tech athletics home events, as well as access to tickets for away games and postseason events, including ACC and NCAA Championships, bowl games and the College Football Playoff. To contribute to the Fourth Quarter Initiative and begin collecting four A-T Fund priority points for every $100 donated, click HERE. For more information, visit atfund.org/4th-quarter.
For the latest information on the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, follow us on X, Facebook, Instagram and at www.ramblinwreck.com.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis testifies before a Georgia State Senate committee in Atlanta as she ends her year-long legal fight over a subpoena and defends her actions in the Trump election interference case.
Posted
Near 500 saves, Kenley Jansen joins Detroit Tigers without closer role
Women’s volleyball professional team headed to San Francisco
Daniss Jenkins sparks rally but Detroit Pistons fall in OT to Dallas
Man airlifted after domestic-related shooting in Miami Gardens, police say
Red Sox’s Veteran Leader Gets Alarming Projection For Upcoming Season
Florida High School Football Rankings: Top 25 teams – Oct. 21
Cleary's 21 help Le Moyne down Central Connecticut State 69-64 in OT
How old is Bo Nix? What to know about Oregon quarterback ahead of 2024 NFL Draft
99th annual Pony Swim held in Virginia
Video: ‘It Didn’t Have to Happen This Way:’ U.Va. Faculty Call for Review of Police Response to Protests
Video: Trump Mocks Obama, Biden in His Presidential ‘Walk of Fame’
Trump quietly signs sweeping $901B defense bill after bipartisan Senate passage
Mercosur signature delayed to January after Meloni asks for more time
Is ISIS making a comeback? : Sources & Methods
Texas Republicans launch ‘Sharia Free America Caucus’ aimed at defending ‘Western civilization’
-
Iowa4 days agoAddy Brown motivated to step up in Audi Crooks’ absence vs. UNI
-
Washington1 week agoLIVE UPDATES: Mudslide, road closures across Western Washington
-
Iowa6 days agoHow much snow did Iowa get? See Iowa’s latest snowfall totals
-
Maine3 days agoElementary-aged student killed in school bus crash in southern Maine
-
Maryland4 days agoFrigid temperatures to start the week in Maryland
-
Technology1 week agoThe Game Awards are losing their luster
-
South Dakota5 days agoNature: Snow in South Dakota
-
Nebraska1 week agoNebraska lands commitment from DL Jayden Travers adding to early Top 5 recruiting class